Combination staple former and stapling machine



R. w. PABICH 3,403,832

COMBINATION STAPLE FORMER AND STAPLING MACHINE Oct. 1, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 31, 1967 RUE INVENTOR ROBERT W. PABICH ATTORNEY Oct. 1, 1968 R. w. PABICH 3,403,832

COMBINATION STAPLE FORMER AND STAPLING MACHINE Filed Aug. 31, 1967 1 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 57 40c 22 4 20a 20 208 20d- 20 INVENTOR ROBERT W. PABICH ATTORNEY 1968 I R- w. PABICH 3,403,832

COMBINATION STAPLE FORMER AND STAPLING MACHINE Filed Aug. 31, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR ROBERT W. PABICH ham ATTO R N EY Oct 1, 1968 R. w, PABlCH 3,403,832

COMBINATION STAPLE FORMER AND STAPLING MACHINE Filed Aug. 31, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR ROBERT w. PABICH BY H M/Z m ATTOR NEY United States Patent 3,403,832 COMBINATION STAPLE FORMER AND STAPLING MACHINE Robert W. Pabich, 2323 N. Knox Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60639 Filed Aug. 31, 1967, Ser. No. 670,495 11 Claims. (Cl. 227--91) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Includes the block and mandrel for forming staples therearound which has a reel of wire with the wire-feeding means adapted to feeding a length of wire over the mandrel. A sliding frame member is associated with the block and has an Opening on the bottom thereof that is shaped to interlock with the mandrel and form a wire disposed therebetween into the shape of a staple. Cooperat ing elements of a shear on the sliding fram member and wire-feeding means shear the length of wire from the reel of wire when the frame member is moved against the mandrel. Staple-gripping means are associated with the block and cooperate with each other to grip the staple after it has been formed over the mandrel and transfer and move the staple to a position where the staple can be driven by a staple-driving means. The staple-gripping means have grooves formed therein for holding the staple and, in addition, one of the staple-gripping means have magnets for holding the staple in position for actuation by the staple-driving means. The device forms one staple while it drives another staple that has just been formed.

After a staple has been formed, it is moved to a position where it is driven by the staple-driving means.

This invention relates to stitcing or stapling devices and more particularly to a combination staple former and stapling machine which utilizes wire from a reel and first forms the wire into staples and thereafter actuates the staples.

In the trade the words stitching and stapling have grown to have different meanings. While with either method of fastening, the legs of a U-shaped piece of flat wire are driven through pieces of cardboard or the like, stitching and stapling are considered fundamentally different. Wire-stiching machines automatically form, drive and clinch each stitch from a continuous piece of wire. On the other hand staplers use pre-formed staples which have been fabricated into rows called sticks and the sticks are usually loaded manually into a machine just like an office desk stapler. Each staple is cut off the stick, driven through the material and clinched. Machines for stapling generally cost less than wire stitching machines. However, the initial economy of lower cost stapling machines is usually offset by the comparatively high cost of the staples and the frequency with which it must be stopped and reloaded.

Thus, while the invention herein has been referred to as a combination staple former and stapling machine, it should be appreciated that the device is a hybrid between a stitcher and a stapling device.

The invention, for illustrative purposes, is shown as having a staple-driving mechanism which is similar to the ones illustrated and described in U.S. Patent No. 2,469,054 and US. Patent No. 2,470,727.

In the use of stapling machines, such as the type illustrated in the drawing and mentioned in the patents herein above, pre-formed staples which are usually made from flat wire are required. Such staples are fed to the stapling machine in magazines which consist of long strips of preformed staples.

There are many instances where the devices are utilized 3,403,832 Patented Oct. 1, 1968 "ice on cartons or the like which require large numbers of staples for fastening. In situations where such large quantities of staples are needed, it is evident that any given number of magazines of staples are quickly expended and, therefore, frequent refilling of the stapling machine by an operator is necessary.

In an effort to provide a stapling machine which has an increased number of stapling elements within a magazine, machines were devised that employ coils of stapling elements such as those illustrated in US. Patents Nos. 2,938,212, 3,279,673, and 2,987,725.

However, such arrangements have not been completely satisfactory where large quantities of staples are needed because reloading is still required and the coils of stapling elements are much more costly when compared with staples which are formed by a machine after receiving wire in the form of raw material being fed to the machine.

Still further, when magazines of staples are used in high-production situations, the likelihood of mechanical breakdown of the stapling device is great, thereby requiring an operator to rectify the mechanical breakdown when the need occurs. Due to the arrangement of the staples in the magazines, they become misaligned and jamming frequently occurs when the staples are severed from the magazines and fed to the driving or actuating means of the stapler or stitcer.

With the foregoing conditions in mind, the present invention has for its foremost object the provision of a combination stapling and staple-forming machine where staples which are formed from raw wire materials are moved from the staple-forming operation to the stapledriving means in a simple and efiicient manner.

Still even further, it is an object of this invention to provide a combination staple-forming machine and stapledriving machine which is correlated and cooperates to form staples and drive them. Still even further, it is another object of this invention to provide a staple-forming machine and staple-driving machine which utilizes the same power source so that the same source can be used for both driving and forming the staples.

Still even further, it is an object of this invention to provide a combination staple-forming and staple-driving machine which first forms a staple and thereafter actuates the same staple without accumulating a number of staples in the form of a magazine.

It is still even further an object of this invention to provide a combination staple-forming and staple-driving machine that first forms staples from raw wire material and positively and simply moves them from where they are formed to a position where they can be driven into material for fastening purposes.

Other and further objects of this invention will become readily apparent from reading te followihng description and accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a sectional fragmentary front view of my device;

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken along a plane passing through the line 2-2 in FIGURE 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view of FIG- URE 2 illustrating how a staple is moved from the mandrel of my device by the gripping means;

FIGURES 4, 5, and 6 are enlarged sectional views taken along a plane passing through the line 4-4 in FIGURE 2 wherein the sliding frame member 13 is illustrated in its different positions as it forms and shears the length of wire 11a;

FIGURE 7 is a pictorial view illustrating my gripper means engaging the staple 11;

FIGURE 8 is a front fragmentary enlarged view of 3 FIGURE 1, illustrating the clinching members of my device in their open position;

FIGURE 9 is a view similar to FIGURES 1 and 8, illustrating the staple 11 after it has been actuated by the staple-driving plunger member 14 as it is being sent to its closed position by the clinching members 18, 18a.

Referring to the figures in the drawing wherein like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout, my new and improved combination staple former and stapling machine is generally designated by the character reference It includes the block 12 which has a track 120 that slidably receives the reciprocating frame member 13. The reciprocating frame member 13 also has track portions 52 which slidably receive a stapledriving plunger member 14 that has projecting side portions 50 for slidable interfitting with the track portions 52. The staple-driving plunger member 14 has a projecting portion 49 along the side of the bottom thereof which is bevelled at 49a. A mandrel 16 is disposed at the bottom of the block 12 and in alignment with the stapleforming means or reciprocating frame member 13. The reciprocating frame member 13 is formed in conformity with the mandrel at the bottom thereof in order that when it is forced thereagainst with a piece of wire interposed therebetween, a staple 11 is formed thereon as illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5, and 6. Staple-clinching anvils 18, 18a are fixedly mounted to a pair of yoke arms 56, 560 which are pivotally mounted around the same point on sleeve 57. The yoke arms are associated with the actuating arms 58, 58a which are drivingly associated with the reciprocating frame member 13 by means of the pins 13a which protrude through the slots 59 in the actuating arms 58, 58a. From FIGURE 2, it can be seen that the sleeve 57 is held in position by the face plate 59 which is attached to the front part of my device.

A first staple-gripping means 20, which moves the staples 11 from the mandrel 16 after they are formed, is slidably mounted in the block 12 as illustrated in FIG. 2 in order that the gripping nose 20a thereof has a horizontal staple-receiving groove 20b which is in alignment with the wire-receiving groove 16a of the mandrel 16 as illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5, and 6. A vertical groove 200 is formed in the gripping nose 20a in order that after the staple 11 is formed, a second staple-gripping means 22 can have its gripping nose 22a proximately disposed and interfitted therewith in the groove 20c so that the staple-receiving groove 22b and the magnets 220 can engage the staple 11 and remove it from the first staplegn'pping means 20 so that the staple can be actuated by the staple-driving plunger member 14 as will be explained hereinafter.

The first staple-gripping means 20 is actuated by a cam 38 which is driven by a gear train 32 off the drive shaft 30. The cam 38 can be associated with the first staple-gripping means 20 in a number of ways, the preferred way being illustrated in FIG. 2 wherein a pivotally mounted follower 40 which is mounted at 40a has the contacting surface 40b thereof following the cam 38 and being actuated at an appropriate time. An adjustable bolt means 44 is threadedly associated with the pivotally mounted followers actuating end 400 so that the first staple-gripping means 20 can be actuated preselected distances in accordance with where the adjustable bolt means is set. A biasing means such as the spring member 20s is interposed between the collar 20d and the gripping end 20a of the first staple-gripping means 20 in order to return it back to its original position illustrated in FIG. 2 after the cam 38 actuates the pivotally mounted follower 40 which in turn moves the first staplegripping means from the mandrel 16 toward the second staple-gripping means 22.

A first cam means 46 is associated with the drive shaft 30 to be rotatively driven. A connecting arm 47 is pivotally associated with the first cam means 46 at 46a at one end thereof and it has its other end thereof pivotally as- 4 sociated with the staple-driving plunger member 14 at 47a. The position of the point 46:: with relation to the staple-driving plunger member 14 determines the position of the plunger member 14; and the position of the outer and inner peripheryof the cam means 46 determines the position of the reciprocating frame member 13 because, as the cam means 46 rotates, the surface thereof is in contact with and actuates a roller 15 on the back of the reciprocating frame member 13. The outer periphery of the first cam means 46 is shaped so that as the cam means 46 is rotated, the reciprocating frame member 13 is actuated against the mandrel 16 to form the staple 11 while the stapledriving plunger member 14 and clinching anvils are actuated by the connecting arm 47 to drive the staple 11 that has been formed and moved by the second staple-gripping means 20 to its position illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 8.

The wire 11a is fed to the block 12 by means of a wirefeeding mechanism 26 which includes a pair of feeding rollers 60, 61 which selectively draw the wire 11a from a wire reel (not shown) and force it through a feeding elbow 62 which receives the wire 11a as the wire is being moved vertically and causes the same to be directed at right angles inward toward the block 12. The wire-feeding mechanism has a shearing member 26a which c0- operates with the shearing member 13b as will be explained hereafter.

In operation, my device has the wire 11a selectively fed to the block 12 in a position over the mandrel as illustrated in FIG. 4. It will be noted that in this position, the wire 11a protrudes through the wire-receiving groove 16a of the mandrel, and the staple-receiving groove 20b of the first staple-gripping means 20. Thereafter the cam means 46 forces the reciprocating frame member 13 downward and the shearing member 13b which is attached to the side thereof cooperates with the shearing member 26a and shears the wire 11a as illustrated in FIG. 5. The staple 11 is formed around the mandrel 16 by the opening 1311 at the bottom of the reciprocating frame member 13. When the reciprocating frame member 13 is moved upward, the first staple-gripping means 20 is urged toward the second staple-gripping means 22 by means of the cam 38, and the gripping end 20a of the first staple-gripping means 20 interfits with the gripping nose 22a, whereupon the gripping nose 22a has its staplereceiving groove 22b in alignment with and receiving the staple 11 while it is in the first staple-gripping means 20. Also the magnets 22c attract the staple 11 at the same time. Thereafter, the first staple-gripping means 20 is withdrawn back to its original position in the mandrel 16 by means of a spring 202. Then the staple-driving plunger member 14 is actuated and forces the staple 11 out of the second staple-gripping means 22 by forcing the gripping nose 22a out of the path of the plunger member by means of the bevelled portion 49a of the projecting portion 49 coming in contact with the gripping nose 22a on the staple-driving plunger members 14 downward movement. The second staple'gripping means 22 is biased back to its original position by a spring (not shown) after the staple 11 has been urged downward. Also, the stapleclinching anvils 18, 18a are caused to move downward from their positions shown in FIGS. 1 and 8 to the position shown in FIG. 9, whereupon the ends of the staple 11 are bent toward each other. The clinching anvils 18, 18a are actuated by means of the yoke arms 56, 56a being moved downward by the actuating arms 58, 58a which results from actuation of the reciprocating frame member 13 downward after the staple-driving plunger member 14 has actuated the staple 11 downward from the second staple-gripping means 22. To achieve the sequence of steps necessary to actuate the staple and the clinching member in a timely fashion, the cam means 46 and 47 are preferably shaped as illustrated so that when the cam means 46 rotates, the staple-driving plunger member 14 is first actuated downward due to the positioning of the.

point 46a as the cam means 46 rotates. The cam means 46 is shaped so that the reciprocating frame member 13 is actuated after the staple-driving plunger memebr 14 moves the staple from the second staple-gripping means 22 as before described. When the reciprocating frame member 13 is actuated downward, in addition to actuating the clinching anvils 18, 18a as hereinbefore described, it also forms a staple 11 on the mandrel 16 by means of the opening 13a at the bottom thereof making contact with said mandrel with a length of wire 11a therebetween so that as a staple is being actuated into engagement with a memebr, a new one is being formed by means of the same stroke of the frame member 13.

From the description of my device and its operation, it is clearly seen that my new and improved device fulfills the objects of this invention in a remarkably unexpected fashion. With my device, great savings can be apprecicated due to the fact that performed staples 'are not necessary for my device. My device, in forming the staples from raw wire material and thereafter actuating the staples for fastening purposes, achieves the combination of steps in a simple and remarkably efiicient manner. By having the staple-gripping means 20 and 22 engage each staple 11 after it is formed and move same from the mandrel 16 to a position where the staples can be actuated by a stapledriving means such as the staple-driving plunger member 14 and clinching members 18, 18a, the device has proven to be relatively free from mechanical breakdowns which occur when a number of preformed staples are loaded into a stapling machine. Also my device in utilizing the same stroke of the frame member for forming a staple while it is actuating another staple brings about the resulting benefits that accrue from merely having one driving stroke.

It is believed that my invention, its mode of construction and assembly, and many of its advatages should be readily understood from the foregoing without further description, and it should also be manifest that while a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown and described for illustrative purposes, the structural details are neventheless capable of wide variation within the purview of my invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A combination staple former and stapling machine, comprising:

a block,

a wire feeding means adapted to feed a length of wire to said block,

a staple-former means that forms said length of wire into a staple, a staple-driving means for driving and fastening a staple formed by said staple former means,

staple-gripping means for individually moving said staple after it is formed to a position where said staple-driving means can drive and fasten said staple to a member. 2. A combination, as defined in claim 1, wherein: said staple-gripping means includes a first staple-gripping means and a second staple-gripping means,

said first staple-gripping means being positioned and having means for holding said staple after it is formed,

said second staple-gripping means receiving said formed staple from said first staple-gripping means and positioning said staple for driving by said staple-driving means.

3. A combination, as defined in claim 2, wherein:

a mandrel having a groove therein receives said wire,

said first staple-gripping means having a horizontal groove for receiving and gripping said staple while and after it is formed,

means for actuating said first staple-gripping means into proximity with said second staple-gripping means after said staple is formed,

said second staple-gripping means including magnetic means for attracting and holding said staple in position to be driven by said staple-driving means.

4. A combination, as defined in claim 3, wherein:

said first staple-gripping means has a vertical groove for receiving said second staple-gripping means to enable said second staple-gripping means to interfit therewith to grip said staple and transfer it from said first staple-gripping means.

5. A combination, as defined in claim 4, wherein:

said staple-forming mechanism cooperates with said staple-actuating mechanism by forming a staple while said staple-actuating mechanism actuates a staple,

whereby said gripper means individually moves formed staples into position to be driven by said staple-actuating mechanism after a staple has been driven and formed.

6. A combination, as defined in claim 5, wherein:

said second staple-gripping means has a slidably-mounted gripping nose received therein,

said gripping nose having a horizontal groove formed therein that stabilizes and locates said staple along with said magnetic means after receiving same,

said gripping nose being disposed in the path of said staple-driving means and being actuatable by said staple-driving means to a withdrawn position away from the path of said staple-driving means when said staple is driven,

said staple being held in position by said magnetic means for actuation by said staple-driving means after said gripping nose is withdrawn,

whereby said staple is actuated by said staple-driving means forcing said staple downward away from said magnetic means after said gripping nose has been forced to its withdrawn position when said stapledriving means drives said staple.

7. A combination, as defined in claim 6, wherein:

said gripping nose has biasing means that actuates it back to its position in the path of said staple-driving means after said staple has been actuated.

8. combination staple former and stapling machine comprising:

a block,

a mandrel for forming staples therearound,

a reel of wire with a wire-feeding means adapted to feed a length of wire over said mandrel,

a sliding frame member associated with said block and having an opening on the bottom thereof that is shaped to interlock with said mandrel and form a wire disposed therebetween into the shape of a staple,

cooperating elements of a shear on said sliding-frame member and said wire-feeding means that shear said length of wire from said reel of wire,

a staple-driving means for driving and fastening a staple formed on said anvil into a surface,

staple-gripping means associated with said block to remove said staple from said mandrel after it has been formed and position said staple in order that it can be driven by said staple-driving means,

and driving means to actuate said staple-gripping means, staple-driving means and sliding frame member.

9. A combination, as defined in claim 8 wherein said driving means causes said actuation mechanism and said sliding frame member to cooperate with each other by actuating a formed staple into a member which a staple is being formed, and

said staple-gripping means includes a first staple-gripping means and a second staple-gripping means,

said first staple-gripping means moves said formed staples from said anvil to said second staple-gripping means after a staple has been actuated by said 7 8 actuating means and formed by said sliding frame driven into said member by said sliding frame memmember. her to' bend the ends of the staple toward each 10. A combination, as defined in claim 9, wherein: other. a cam is associated with said driving means to move said first staple-gripping means after said length of 5 References Cited wire has been formed into a staple. 11. A combination, as defined in claim 10, wherein: UNITED STATES PATENTS said staple actuating means includes a staple plunger 2,414,390 1/1947 Pagllarul 227-91 X member and a pair of clincher anvils associated with 2,697,829 12/1954 Wmkler 227113 X said sliding frame member,

10 said staple plunger member being slidably mounted and actuatable to force said staple into a member for TRAVIS MCGEHEE P r 1mm y Exammer' fastening and said clincher anvils thereafter being R. L. FARRIS, Assistant Examiner.

3,224,657 12/1967 Zike 227l08 X 

